Dragon and the Maple Leaf

This past Friday whole Vancouver celebrated Canada Day. Streets were filled with bewildering array of people from all over the globe: Japanese, Chinese, Europeans, Native Canadians, South Americans, Africans, Oceanians and countless others, all decorated with Maple Leat motifs and Canada slogans. This is one of the great strengths of Canada in general and Vancouver in particular. This city is truly a city of immigrants, and here no-one feels excluded or out-of-place. Even I, not really suited to such displays decided to take a temporary tattoo of a Maple leaf -and since the money went to a children's hospital it was a really good cause.

Even the Football World Cup did not cause any real bad feelings amongst our ethnically diverse studio beyond some friendly teasing of the fans of the losing team. In England, if you are a forigner after a game that England lost, you'd better watch out -you'd get no mercy from the violent yahoos that roam the streets of Britan, looking someone to blame for the loss.

In Vancouver, people are happy if you are happy, regardless of of your ethnicity. That is something for everyone in this world to learn.

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